Two Of A Kind Bluff
by JessieJay13
Summary: "If you're worried about tainting your living space, you probably shouldn't volunteer it as a good place for all your friends to get each other naked." - In which there is strip poker at Parrish's house, and Laura doesn't mind the idea of Stiles losing one bit.


**A/N: one of my many Laura-centric fics, written for 2017's Laura Hale Appreciation Week (which i run on tumblr, check it out sometime ;D)**

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"You are so going down," Stiles said, smug surety practically _radiating_ off him. "Don't even bother with clothes."

Laura raised a disbelieving eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Oh really? You're that confident?" She snorted. "Please. Might I remind you which of us has hearing acute enough to pick up anxious heartbeats from a distance?"

"Might I remind you which of us has spent the last three solid years _perfecting _the art of circumventing the aforementioned hearing?" Stiles responded, completely undeterred. "And my poker face is _legendary._"

"Not exactly," Scott chipped in as he passed them by on his way to the living room, four enormous bowls of chips balanced in his arms. "Pretty sure the only person we know with a functional poker face is Derek. And he's not even gonna be here tonight. Really, everyone here sucks at this and it might be a really lame game without him."

"Ex_cuse_ you, traitor," Stiles called after him. "I am _awesome_ at this."

"And it's a damn good thing Derek's not here," Laura said with a shudder. "There is no way I would ever play strip poker with my little brother. I don't wanna see that."

"Pretty sure he would agree," said Boyd, half a dozen cases of beer clutched under his muscly arms as he followed Scott's path to where the poker table was set up. "Only one Hale per strip poker night: that's the rule."

Erica poked her head back into the kitchen with them, a lascivious grin on her red lips as she waggled her eyebrows. "And tonight, that just so happens to be you. Derek set the bar pretty high with his abs last time, so you better bring your A-game."

"What, my abs aren't good enough?" Laura demanded, the tiniest bit offended because she had fantastic abs, thank you very much. She worked out four times a week!

Wide, warm hands slid around her waist from behind to settle on those very abs, a warm chuckle sounding in her ear.

"Don't worry, babe," Stiles said. "You're the only Hale I really wanna see naked."

Laura let her head fall back onto his shoulder, rolling it until she could run her nose along the underside of his jaw. "Stiles, you've already seen me naked," she pointed out.

"Yes," he said, that smugness coming back in full force. "I most certainly have. Which is exactly why I am so determined to do so again."

"In front of all our friends?" Laura laughed. "Why that when you can see it at home any time you want?"

Stiles hummed contemplatively. He placed a trail of kisses from her temple to her jaw, then further, down her neck and across her shoulder, tugging the strap of her tank top out of the way to bare more skin. Laura couldn't help but tilt her head the other way to give him better access.

"Maybe I just want them all to see what they're missing," Stiles murmured into the soft space behind her ear, and Laura shivered. "I'm not above making people a little jealous."

"Oh, you just want to show me off," Laura said. She turned around in his arms to slide her own over his wide shoulders. "And what if I want to do the same? You wear too many layers most of the time. No one ever gets to see all those biceps you're hiding under there."

"Those are all for you, babe," he said.

"Is that so?" Laura asked.

"Mmhm. Exclusive content for premium customers only."

"Well, don't I feel special."

And when he kissed her, she really did. She always did, every single time. Even after so many years together, just one of those _looks_ from Stiles could make her weak at the knees, his eyes bright and focused and intense. He had a knack for making her feel like she was the only person in the world.

It had been that way from the very start when Derek had brought the kid home for a school project and Laura had come flying down the stairs, late for soccer practice. She'd bowled him right over, and he had just lain on the floor and stared up at her like she was a warrior goddess sent to walk the earth specifically to bless him with her fierce beauty. He had said as much out loud and Laura, for the first time in her entire life, had blushed.

It had taken them a few years, a couple of wrong turns, and a little heartbreak to get to the actual dating each other part, but through it all Stiles had never stopped looking at her like she was something wondrous. He held her that way too: gently, like she was something precious that deserved to be handled tenderly, but firm enough to keep her from slipping away.

His arm around her waist now was more than steady enough to keep her upright when her knees threatened to buckle with every swipe of his tongue across her lips. Laura swore she could lose herself in this.

"Jeez, guys, could you please not? I have to actually live here knowing what's gone on in this hallway."

Stiles' arm reluctantly relinquished its place at Laura's waist and she was 78% sure that he was giving Parrish the bird. She pulled back with a put upon sigh and turned to see Parrish leaning in the living room doorway and looking something between pained, disgusted, and fond.

"If you're worried about tainting your living space, you probably shouldn't volunteer it as a good place for all your friends to get each other naked," she said. "I'm just saying."

Stiles threw his head back on a laugh. "The lady's got a point! I think a sordid game of strip poker trumps a loving couple expressing that love in perfectly innocent, strictly PG ways."

"If that's your idea of PG, I'm never letting you take my future kids to a movie," Parrish grumbled. "Now are you two gonna come in and actually play the game? Or are you just gonna stand out here and make goo goo eyes at each other all night?"

"As tempting as that sounds..." Stiles gave Laura one last kiss and made for the doorway, turning around to smirk over his shoulder at her. "I've got a game to win and a lady to undress."

"You wish," Laura shot back.

Stiles winked. "Damn right I do. Now get in here."

Laura followed him inside, making a solemn vow to herself to use every trick in her prodigious arsenal to utterly _crush him._ She would wipe that smile off his face if it killed her, boyfriend or no.

And, well...maybe she wouldn't mind showing him off a little either.


End file.
